Apparatus for enabling an excavator to mount, demount and travel on railroad tracks

ABSTRACT

A glyde-rail apparatus removably attached to a carrier such as an excavator to enable the excavator to mount and demount at any point along a railroad track and to travel along the railroad track without damaging the railroad track. The glyde-rail apparatus comprises a front swing arm assembly having a pair of rail wheels which removably attaches to one end of a frame of the excavator and a back swing arm assembly having a pair of rail wheels which removably attaches to a second end of the frame of the excavator. A pair of hydraulic cylinders positioned on the front swing arm assembly and another pair of hydraulic cylinders positioned on the back swing arm assembly enable the rail wheels to be raised or lowered onto the railroad track. A hard rubber cover attaches to the track of the excavator.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/841,625, filed Aug. 30, 2006 which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to a vehicle having rail wheels attached to operate on a railroad track and, in particular, to a glyde-rail apparatus that enables an excavator having rubberized tracks to mount on and demount from railroad tracks at any point along the track, and travel on the railroad tracks.

2. Description of Related Art

The clearing of vegetation along railroad tracks is a serious responsibility for the owners of railroad tracks for the safety of trains traveling on the tracks. Further, there are Federal laws which provide for fines to the track owners if vegetation is not controlled outside a certain distance from the tracks.

Heavy mobile equipment exists having a boon support column pivotally attached to a boom arm having a universal connection for connecting various working devices. Typically, work equipment has to load and unload from railroad tracks at a railroad crossing where the top of the track is level with the street. When the mobile equipment is moved along a track to a work area, the equipment cannot be removed from the track to allow a train to pass without being moved to a crossing somewhere along the track, which takes time and requires leaving and returning to a work area.

The prior art discloses many diverse railroad track repair and maintenance machines each devoted to a single specialized task. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,296, issued Jan. 31, 1984 to Fredy Scheuchzner, et al., and assigned to Les Fils d'Auguste Scheuchzner S. A., of Switzerland, discloses a railroad track relaying train comprising a track removing car, an excavating car, a track relaying car and a tie-screw fitting car followed by a transporting car. Coupling frames interconnect two adjacent working cars by means of universal or Cardan joints. Each coupling frame is equipped with a caterpillar truck which has a pair of track members and is equipped with lifting means comprising a hydraulic cylinder for lowering and lifting the truck in relation to its coupling frame. Each of the cars constitute together a hinged sequence of wagons supported by six bogie-trucks and they are interconnected by the coupling frames. Each truck is provided with hydraulic cylinder for raising and lowering the coupling frame relative to the respective truck and with mechanisms for driving and steering the truck. However, the relaying train does not disclose an ability to remove trucks from the rails of any point along the tracks.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,205, issued Jun. 8, 2004 to Lionel C. Desmarais, et al., and assigned to Ledcor IP Holdings, Ltd., of Canada, discloses a rubber tired railway plow comprising a plow unit mounted on the forward end of the vehicle, railwheels mounted on the vehicle and a high rail unit positioned on the rear end of the vehicle. The plow unit is attached so as to be moveable in a plate. Wedges are used to maintain the plow unit in position on the plate. Another embodiment shows a cable winder apparatus having a front reel and a rear wheel mounted on a vehicle having steerable forward and rearward tires. A high rail unit mounted on rear of the vehicle comprises a pair of railwheels between arms which are rotated up and down by hydraulic cylinders. However, the vehicle cannot access and egress from the railroad tracks without requiring the presence of a siding.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,822, issued Mar. 8, 2005 to Ken Masse, of Edmonton, Alberta discloses a mobile railway track repair apparatus having a mobile unit, a boom unit, a universal connector unit, an excavator assembly, a tampering/compacting assembly and an undercutter assembly. The mobile unit comprises a motorized track traversing member having a dual mode undercarriage that supports a rotating turret style cab wherein, the undercarriage employs both a rail engaging flanged wheel assembly and a crawler track assembly wherein the flanged wheel assembly may be raised relative to the crawler track assembly in a well recognized fashion to allow the repair apparatus to gain access and egress from the railway tracks without requiring the presence of a siding to do so, as well as ditching/excavating, etc. The cab is rotatably supported on the undercarriage to support and position the boom unit and the associated tool assemblies at numerous angular inclinations relative to both the railroad track and track bed. However, the track repair apparatus does not have rubber pads replacing track grooves whereby the apparatus could be self-propelled along the track.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide a removable glyde-rail apparatus on a vehicle, such as an excavator, to enable the vehicle to mount and demount on a railroad track at any point along the railroad track without having to find a section of the railroad track where the top of the track is level with a roadway, and to enable the vehicle travel along the railroad tracks.

It is another object of this invention to provide a glyde-rail apparatus for removably mounting on an excavator used to travel along the railroad tracks without damaging the tracks by covering the track of the excavator with rubber material.

It is a further object of this invention to provide control means to raise and lower rail wheels of the glyde-rail apparatus to facilitate a vehicle to which the glyde-rail apparatus is attached mounting on and demounting from a railroad track.

Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended claims particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of this invention. The various objects, advantages and novel features of this invention will be more fully apparent from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial cutaway side elevational view of a glyde-rail apparatus according to the present invention showing rail wheels lowered on a railroad track.

FIG. 2 is a partial cutaway side elevational view of a glyde-rail apparatus according to the present invention showing rail wheels raised above a railroad track.

FIG. 3 is a top view of a front swing arm assembly of the glyde-rail apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a back swing arm assembly of the glyde-rail apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view of an excavator track having rubber covering attached over the track.

FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of a body mount to which a front or rear swing arm assembly is attached.

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of a front swing arm assembly mounted between the tracks of an excavator.

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a partial cutaway side elevational view of a glyde-rail apparatus 10 attached to an excavator 12 is shown according to the present invention. The glyde-rail apparatus 10 comprises a front swing arm assembly 14 which removably attaches to a first end of the excavator 12 and a back swing arm assembly 16 which removably attaches to a second end of the excavator 12. A track 20 (FIG. 5) of the excavator comprises non-metallic cover 22 such as hard rubber or the track 20 may be made of a non-metallic material such as hard rubber.

The front swing arm assembly 14 comprises a pair of rail wheels 24, 25 shown in contact with the railroad track 18. The back end swing arm assembly comprises a pair of rail wheels 80, 81 shown in contact with the railroad track 18. When the excavator 12 comprises the glyde-rail apparatus 10 including the track 20 with non-metal covers, the front end swing arm assembly 14, and the back end swing arm assembly 16, the excavator 12 is able to mount a railroad track 18 at any point along the track, demount from the railroad track 18 at any point along the track, and travel along the railroad track 18 to perform various work activities. A boom support 13 extending outward from the front end of the excavator 13 may have various work equipment attached to a boom arm which connects to the boom support 13. One important and useful machine tool, for use with the excavator 12, when the glyde-rail apparatus 10 is attached, is a mower used for vegetation control along the railroad track 18. The glyde-rail apparatus 10, although shown in FIG. 1 attached to an excavator 12, may be used on other vehicles such as a dump truck with rubber tracks.

Referring to FIG. 2, a side partial cutaway elevational view of the glyde-rail apparatus 10 attached to the excavator 12 is shown with the front and back rail wheels 24, 25 and 80, 81 raised above the railroad track 18. When the rail wheels 24, 25 and 80, 81 are in the raised position, the excavator track 20 can rotate ninety (90) degrees to be perpendicular to the railroad track 18, and demount from the railroad track 18 at any reasonable point without the excavator 12 having to travel along the railroad track 18 to a distant location where the top of the track is level with a road.

Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 3, and FIG. 7, FIG. 3 is a top view of the front swing arm assembly 14 comprising the front rail wheels 24, 25 attached to each end of an axle 26, and FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of the swing arm assembly 14 attached to the excavator 12. Extending from two points along the axle 26 are a pair of spaced-apart swing arms 30 and 32. Each one of lower cylinder mounts 38, 40 attaches to one of the swing arms 30, 32 respectively. Two lower cylinder mounts 38, 40 are provided, and one end of two hydro-power unit cylinders 34, 36 connects to one of the cylinder mounts 38, 40 respectively and the other end connects to one of a pair of body mounts 42, 44 (see FIG. 6). The pair of body mounts 42, 44 are welded to a lower frame portion of the excavator 12. A top portion 42 a of body mount 42 is U-shaped having holes for receiving a pin 46 which passes through a hole in an end of a piston arm 50 of hydro-power unit cylinder 34. The pin size for the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 is 2.5 inches in diameter which is determined by the size and total weight of the carrier or excavator 12 with a tool attached to a boom support 13. A top portion 44 a of body mount 44 is U-shaped having holes for receiving a pin 48 (typically 2.5 inches in diameter) which passes through a hole in an end of a piston arm 52 of hydro-power unit cylinder 36. A lower portion 42 b of body mount 42 comprises spaced-apart flanges having holes for securing an end of the swing arm assembly 30 with a pin (typically 2.5 inches in diameter), and likewise, a lower portion 44 b (FIG. 6) of body mount 44 comprises a flange having holes for securing an end of the swing arm assembly 32 with a pin (typically 2.5 inches in diameter). The spacing between the swing arms 30, 32 is determined by the distance between the tracks 20 of the excavator 12. Two parallel tubes 54, 56 are mounted between and within the swing arms 30, 32 to provide support for the swing arms 30, 32, and a 0.75 inch thick plate 56 is attached in the space between the swing arms 30, 32 and the parallel tubes 54, 56. The plate 56 serves as a shelf for holding a battery 58, a hydraulic pump power pack 60 including a hydraulic tank 62, a motor 64, and two switches 70, 72 located on the side of the hydraulic tank 62 that controls the swing arm assemblies 14, 16 moving up and down. Hydraulic lines 66 a, 66 b, 66 c and 68 a, 68 b and 68 c extend from the hydraulic pump power pack 60 to the hydro-cylinders 34, 36, and hydraulic line 70 extends to the hydro-cylinders 89, 90 on the back swing arm assembly 16. The glyde-rail apparatus 10 does not connect to the hydraulics of the excavator 12. The width of the axle 26 with the rail wheels 24, 25 on each end is of course determined by the width of the railroad track 18. The glyde-rail apparatus 10 is self-powered by the battery 58 and the hydraulic pump power pack 60.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a top view of the back swing arm assembly 16 comprising the back rail wheels 80, 81 attached at each end of an axle 82. Extending from two points along the axle 82 are a pair of spaced apart swing arms 84, 86. Two lower cylinder mounts 92, 94 are provided, and each one of the lower cylinder mounts 92, 94 attaches to one of the swing arms 84, 86 respectively. One end of two hydro-power unit cylinders 88, 90 connects to one of the lower cylinder mounts 92, 94, respectively, and the other end connects one of a pair of body mounts 96, 98. The pair of body mounts 96, 98 are welded to a lower frame portion of a carrier or the excavator 12. A top portion 96 a of body mount 96 is U-shaped having holes for receiving a pin 100 (typically 2.5 inches in diameter) which passes through a hole in an end of a piston arm 104 of the hydro-power unit cylinder 88. A top portion 98 a (not shown) of body mount 98 is U-shaped having holes for receiving a pin 102 (typically 2.5 inches in diameter) which passes through a hole in an end of a piston arm 106 of hydro-power unit cylinder 90. A lower portion 98 b of body mount 98 comprises a flange having holes for securing an end of the swing arm 86 with a pin similar to pin 102. The spacing between the swing arms 84, 86 is determined by the distance between the tracks 20 of the excavator 12. Two parallel tubes 108, 110 are mounted between and within the swing arms 84, 86 to provide support for swing arms 84, 86. A hydraulic line 70 from the hydraulic pump power pack 60 located in the front swing arm assembly 14 feeds hydraulic lines 70 a, 70 b, 70 c which connect to hydraulic lines 110 a, 110 b and 110 c which feed hydraulic cylinders 88, 90.

Referring to FIG. 5, a partial perspective view of one of the excavator's track 20 is shown having a hard rubber covering 22 attached over the metal track. Mounting bolts 23 are provided between each rib 21 of the track 20. Also, the track 20 or the ribs 21 of the track 20 may be made of rubber or some other material that will not damage the railroad tracks 18. The track 20 of the excavator is covered with rubber to prevent damage to the railroad tracks.

The hydro-power unit cylinders 34, 36 and 88, 90 may be embodied by Model No. 067839-755261 (BM07-25-001), manufactured by Parker Hannifix of Cleveland, Ohio. The hydraulic pump power pack 60 may be embodied by Model No. 2622960027 (G03G), manufactured by Mason Dynamics of Grand Rapids, Minn. The battery 58 may be embodied by a heavy-duty 31 Series 12 V Battery.

This invention has been disclosed in terms of a certain embodiment. It will be apparent that many modifications can be made to the disclosed apparatus without departing from the invention. Therefore, it is the intent of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of this invention. 

1. An apparatus for attaching to a carrier comprising: a front swing arm assembly attached to a first end of said carrier having a first pair of rail wheels extending in front of said first end; said front swing arm assembly comprises means for raising and lowering said first pair of rail wheels; a back swing arm assembly attached to a second end of said carrier having a second pair of rail wheels extending in front of said second end; and said back swing arm assembly comprises means for raising and lowering said second pair of rail wheels.
 2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said carrier comprises tracks made of rubber material or covered with rubber material.
 3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said carrier comprises a first pair of body mounts attached to said excavator for attaching said front swing arm assembly thereto.
 4. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said apparatus comprises a first pair of body mounts attached to said excavator for attaching said back swing arm assembly thereto.
 5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said apparatus comprises a second pair of body mounts attached to said carrier for attaching said back swing arm assembly thereto.
 6. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said raising and lowering means of said front swing arm assembly comprises: a first pair of hydraulic cylinders having a first end mounted on one of a pair of front swing arms and a second end attached to one of a pair of front body mounts attached to said carrier; means for driving said hydraulic cylinders; and means for controlling the raising and lowering of said first pair of rail wheels and said second pair of rail wheels.
 7. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said raising and lowering means of said back swing arm assembly comprises: a second pair of hydraulic cylinders having a first end mounted on one of a pair of back swing arms and a second end attached to one of a pair of back body mounts attached to said carrier; and means for driving said hydraulic cylinders connected between said front swing arm assembly and said back swing arm assembly. 